Bob Dearborn

Bob Dearborn was touted as Canada’s youngest disc jockey when he began his radio career in Hamilton, Ontario at the age of 15. He later moved on to the U.S., stopping first at WPRO in Providence and then WIXY Cleveland, WPTR Albany, WKNR Detroit, and WCFL Chicago. It was at the latter where he worked for six years that he wrote his famous comprehensive analysis of the Don McLean hit “American Pie.”

He also made a couple stops in Tampa Bay – at WDAE and WPLP in the 70’s – and then joined Pittsburgh’s WTAE. In January 1981 RKO Radio hand-picked him to host its syndicated all night music show “Night Time America.” Broadcast from Manhattan, it ran for four years live via satellite to 154 stations across the U.S.

For the next sixteen years he was back in Chicago with WJMK-FM and sister station WJJD-AM before moving to Seattle to program adult standards KIXI. After taking out a few years to care for his parents back in Toronto, he returned to radio at CHWO in 2003 and, after that, mornings on CKWR-FM in Waterloo, Ontario in 2007.

After two years there, doubling the audience share in the first ratings period, and increasing it substantially again in the most recent book, Dearborn learned in July 2009 that his contract would not be renewed by the station's board of directors.